Thursday, March 27, 2008

The Best off the LPGA: JLPGA Edition, March 2008

Hound Dog and I have been casually batting around the idea of how to internationalize our ranking systems, which are LPGA-only thus far, off and on over the past year or so. Now that I've established myself as Blogoramaville's functionally illiterate expert on the JLPGA (with an email from Daniel Wexler to prove it!) and not-quite-live-blogged a couple of JLPGA events this season, I figured I'd take the first baby step toward acting on our ideas by adding a single letter to my Best of the LPGA rankings and extending their methodology to the 2008 JLPGA season. By using the most recent results from the Rolex Rankings, the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index, and the JLPGA Money List, that is, I hope to identify the Best of the JLPGA. In future odd-numbered months, I'll do the same for the KLPGA and LET. If anyone has any ideas on how to go about combining these 4 ranking systems at the end of the season, comment away!

Taking into account the final 2007 money list this time around, there's a clear #1, but she has nothing like Lorena Ochoa's lead in the LPGA.

1. Momoko Ueda: #1 2007 money (￥166.1M), #16 2008 money (￥3.3M), #10 RR (4.44), #8 GSPI (70.31). Depending on how her schedule plays out this year, she could try to stay on the top of the heap in Japan and make a run at the Rookie of the Year race on the LPGA. But if she had been seriously considering this possibility at the start of the season, Louise Friberg's win at Bosque Real may have changed her calculations. Still, a T5 in her first and only start on the JLPGA has to be a tempting foundation to build on.

2. Yuri Fudoh: #6 2007 money (￥87.1M), #3 2008 money (￥12.2M), #17 RR (3.87), #10 GSPI (70.69). Her playoff win in the season's second event is her only top-10 finish thus far, so, assuming Ueda will spend most of her time on the LPGA, the best-ever JLPGA player's ability to stay ahead of her challengers will be one big question to follow this season.

3. Sakura Yokomine: #2 2007 money (￥114.9M), #2 2008 money (￥17.1M), #16 RR (3.90), #24 GSPI (71.04). Two runner-up finishes and nothing worse than a top 5 in her first 3 events of 2008 establish her as the hottest player on the JLPGA, even though the GSPI has not yet caught up with her recent accomplishments. We'll have to see what kind of psychological fallout her two near-misses incur, though. The sooner she can put the Groundhog Day-like yips nightmare from last week behind her, the better my prediction that she'll be the first to take over the #1 spot from Ueda will look.

5. Shiho Ohyama: #8 2007 money (￥71.7M), #10 2008 money (￥4.6M), #25 RR (3.44), #35 GSPI (71.63). Two top 10s followed by a disappointing T33 with Shin in the field suggest there are still some kinks to be worked out in her game.

Next there's a trio looking to build on their one-top-10/one-top-20 or two-top-20 achievements and move up the charts:

7. Mi-Jeong Jeon: #3 2007 money (￥110.9M), #12 2008 money (￥4.3M), #24 RR (3.48), #37 GSPI (71.73). An uncharacteristic MC last week is the only blemish on a fine start to the season--T5 and T11 in her first two events.

8. Shinobu Moromizato: #7 2007 money (￥85.3M), #13 2008 money (￥4.0M), #44 RR (2.39), #40 GSPI (71.94). Two top 10s plus a top 20 get her 2008 off on the right foot.

9. Bo-Bae Song: #16 2007 money (￥44.4M), #1 2008 money (￥19.6M), #51 RR (1.93), #64 GSPI (72.53). With a win, a third-place finish, and a T15 thus far this season, she stands atop the 2008 money list and has broken into the top ranks of the JLPGA, despite the lag between her world rankings and her performance.

10. Akiko Fukushima: #11 2007 money (￥51.6M), #17 2008 money (￥3.0M), #43 RR (2.47), #57 GSPI (72.36). A top 20, top 30, and a top 10 to start the season drop her down the charts a bit.

Next there's big group on the rise, with one top 10, two top 20s, or two top 50s in the world rankings under their belts:

11. Yun-Jye Wei: #20 2007 money (￥38.1M), #7 2008 money (￥7.7M), #58 RR (1.68), #111 GSPI (73.47). A playoff loss and a T11 get her season off to a great start.

16. Eun-A Lim: #86 2007 money (￥5.1M), #8 2008 money (￥6.7M), #75 RR (1.34), #n.r. GSPI (72.64) [too few events in database thus far]. Two top 10s, including a T3 in the opening tournament of the year, put her in position to challenge much more established players in the rankings this season.

18. Hyun-Ju Shin: #12 2007 money (￥48.5M), #35 2008 money (￥1.5M), #46 RR (2.20), #50 GSPI (72.22). Off to a slow start with two top 40s and a top 30 thus far this season, but likely to move up the charts as she gets more events under her belt.

20. Pei-Lin Yu: d.n.p. 2007, #18 2008 money (￥2.6M), n.r. RR [too few events in database thus far], n.r. GSPI (71.92) [too few events in database thus far]. I believe she's a rookie; a top 20 and a top 30 in the past two weeks have vaulted her ahead of many more established players. We'll have to see if she can keep this up.

Close behind them is another big group with one top 20 and otherwise solid results: